INEC Reviews IDP Electoral System

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has started reviewing the electoral system for voters in internally displaced person (IDP) camps in preparation for the general elections of 2023.

The introduction of new technologies and the enactment of the 2022 electoral act are to blame, according to INEC Chairman Professor Mahmood Yakubu.

Speaking in Abuja at the presentation of the proposed election rules for IDP camps for 2023, he disclosed this.

The Chairman stated that the goal is to ensure that no citizen is denied their right to vote and to connect the framework with the requirements of the new election legislation.

The use of BVAS in IDP camps is one of the suggestions in the draft rules, which must be set up to collect data at the polling unit level exclusively.

There are around 2.1 million IDPs in Nigeria, including children, according to current data from the United Nations Refugee Agency. However, it is unknown how many of them are eligible to vote in the IDP camps.

The commission had, in August, published a “preliminary” register of voters in its LGA offices.

Prof Yakubu refutes the claims that the commission was not willing to display the comprehensive voters’ register as provided by section 19(1) of the Electoral Act, 2022.

“This claim is incorrect. What the commission displayed for claims and objections in our local government area offices nationwide for a period of one week — from August 15 to August 21 — was not the entire register of voters”.“It was the list of fresh registrants at the end of the fourth and last quarter of the continuous voter registration exercise, covering the period from April 11 to July 31.This had been the practice for several years”.“We wish to assure Nigerians that the commission will display the comprehensive register in all the 8,809 wards and 774 local government areas/area councils nationwide as contained in section 19(1) of the Electoral Act, 2022″, he said